The Aviation Historian — January 2018

Issue No 22 THE AVIATION HISTORIAN 101

O

N SEPTEMBER 2, 1959, a tall, thin

young lad struggling with a heavy

RAF F-24 aerial camera climbed into

the back of an Auster J/1 Autocrat.

After strapping himself into the

sideways-facing rear seat he unclipped the

triangular window in front of him and placed

it carefully on the floor. As he did so a young

woman slipped into the left-hand seat, and, after

setting the throttle, called “contact!”. This was

echoed by the owner of a hairy arm that swung

the Auster’s Blackburn Cirrus II engine into

life. A moment later the pilot signalled for the

wooden chocks to be pulled from the wheels and

the “Autocrate” taxied out and took off.

I was that young lad, then aged 17; the

pilot was 32-year-old Janet Ferguson and the

Autocrat was G-AGTP. Leaving Elstree amid a

lot of noise, but with little progress to show for

it, we eventually reached 1,000ft (300m) and

headed for Welwyn Garden City, 10min away,

to photograph the UK headquarters of Roche

Products. It was my very first commissioned job

for Derby Aerosurveys and the first time I had

flown with Janet, normally an instructor with the

London School of Flying (LSF).

Thanks to a thorough briefing beforehand,

the photography took only minutes, during

which hardly a word of direction from me was

necessary. We landed back at Elstree 40min later,

ears ringing from the noisy engine amplified

by the absence of the rear port window. That

evening I told my mum proudly that I had flown

with a WOMAN. And what a woman!

Janet who?

That flight was the first of more than 60 I made

with Janet. Most people have heard of her

contemporary, the much-publicised Sheila Scott

(1922–88), but Janet Ferguson? In reality, she

was to become the much more experienced and

accomplished of the two.

Born on May 25, 1928, Janet Leslie (not Lesley)

Ferguson probably began her interest in aviation

at the age of ten, when two “daredevil uncles”

took her flying shortly before the outbreak of

the Second World War. On leaving school Janet

worked for several years as a secretary at the

BBC, but already had ambitions to learn to fly

and become a commercial pilot. To this end she

scrimped and saved and joined the Denham

Flying Club, taking her first flying lesson in a

club Miles M.14A Hawk Trainer in September

1951. She soloed in M.14A G-AIUE in January
      1952 and gained her licence in July, becoming the
      proud owner of Private Pilot’s Licence No 34639.
      That same month she joined the Women’s RAF
      Volunteer Reserve, enjoying weekend flying
      and two weeks’ summer camp flying RAF de
      Havilland Canada Chipmunks, remaining in the
      service until it was disbanded in 1954.
      Janet took a job as a secretary at Denham,
      where she became a “Jan of all trades”, mucking
      in with refuelling club aircraft and working in
      operations. That enabled her to get cheap flying
      at “fuel and oil” rates and, more importantly,
      gain valuable experience that would stand her in

With a career in aviation spanning more

than four decades, Janet Ferguson was a

dedicated flyer who shunned the limelight

some of her contemporaries enjoyed,

preferring to put all her efforts into

spending maximum time in the air.

RICHARD T. RIDING, helped by Janet’s

fellow aviatrix ADÈLE STEPHENSON,

chartsthe colour ful and varied flying

career of his unsung aviation heroine

ABOVE RIGHT Janet Ferguson during a lunch break from flying at Elstree in 1962. Although her aviation career

included a variety of flying activities — instructing, air racing etc — it was delivery flights Janet enjoyed most, as

she explained: “For me, it’s a means of flying unusual aircraft on my own over all sorts of different country”.

ALL PHOTOGRAPHS VIA RICHARD T. RIDING